Cafe Brazil Restaurant Review

: At this perpetually packed Brazilian restaurant, sexy, young denizens drink and dine under dim lights tubed in bright sheets of construction paper, while candles flicker on the tables clothed with ocean-blue fabric. The scene, hotter than the chili peppers that infuse the dishes prepared by Tony Zarlenga and his wife, Marla, whose paintings grace the deep orange and red walls, is especially vibrant on the weekends. That’s when the adjacent bar, harboring the largest tequila selection in Denver, is crushed with overflow. Exotic appetizers include the camarao Brazil, impossibly large prawns cloaked in a black bean sauce aromatic with garlic and aji of campana, a tart salsa of cubed red onions and bell peppers. Dinner entrées, influenced by the Bahia region of Brazil, showcase a spicy seafood stew called moqueca de peixe that brims with diver scallops, shrimp and bacalhau, a dried salt cod, floating in coconut milk punctuated with ginger, shallots, garlic and palm oil. We also recommend the rack of lamb, marinated in citrus juices and crowned with a salsa specked with fennel. The wine list is heavy on Chilean, Argentinean and Spanish bottlings, all of which are fairly-priced.